A social media post has ignited discussions about Oracle’s recent mass layoffs affecting 30,000 employees, executed swiftly via a standardized email. Peter Girnus, who presents himself as an HR executive, highlighted the stark contrast between the laid-off workers and newly appointed CFO Hilary Maxson, who receives a hefty compensation package.
A viral post on social media platform X has sparked widespread debate over corporate restructuring practices after it described the mass layoff at Oracle involving 30,000 employees “executed within minutes”. Peter Girnus, an American cybersecurity researcher, imagines himself as Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Oracle Corporation. He said the layoffs were communicated via a standardized email sent at 6 AM, on last Tuesday, where an email was sent to 30,000 employees. While yesterday morning, 1 person at $950,000 a year.
The one person he was referring to was Hilary Maxson, who joined Oracle as new Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
While presented as fiction, Girnus said, “Hilary Maxson started as our new Chief Financial Officer. Base salary: $950,000. Annual performance bonus target: $2.5 million. Equity package: $26 million — $20.8 million time-based, $5.2 million performance-based, vesting over 4 years. We are also covering up to $250,000 in relocation expenses. Her offer letter is 7 pages. The separation notice I sent 30,000 people is 4 paragraphs.”
Notably, days after the layoffs, Oracle has appointed Hilary Maxson as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Maxson steps in with a $950,000 (Rs 8.8 crore) salary and a $2.5 million (Rs 23.2 crore) bonus potential.
She is also entitled to $26 million (Rs 241.7 crore) equity grant, where 80 per cent is time-based ($20.8 million) and 20 per cent performance-based ($5.2 million).
Sharing the sequence of layoff, he said, “30,000 endpoints terminated in under 4 minutes.”
“The layoffs were communicated via a standardized email sent at 6 AM, with system access for affected employees revoked almost immediately. The account claims that badges, VPN tokens, laptops, and email accounts were disabled within four minutes, leaving thousands locked out simultaneously.”
“By 6:04 AM, 30,000 people were staring at a login screen that would never accept their password again. The email reminded them they were “prohibited from downloading, copying, or retaining any Oracle confidential information.”
“3 people called the HR hotline before 6:15. 2 asked if the email was real. 1 asked if she could retrieve a photo of her daughter from her desktop. I directed all 3 to the separation portal.”
I am the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Oracle Corporation.
Last Tuesday, I sent an email to 30,000 people at 6 AM.
Yesterday morning, I onboarded 1 person at $950,000 a year.
Both were my responsibility. Both were executed flawlessly.
The email said: “After…
— Peter Girnus 🦅 (@gothburz) April 7, 2026
We needed cash
In his post, he further said, in January, TD Cowen published an analyst note. It said cutting 20,000 to 30,000 employees would generate $8 to $10 billion in incremental free cash flow. We needed that cash. Our AI data center capital expenditures are projected at $50 billion this fiscal year. We had a $20 billion shortfall.
“1 day before the email, on Monday, our 5-year credit default swaps hit 198.6 basis points. That is the highest level in Oracle’s history. Higher than December 2008. Higher than the financial crisis itself. The market is pricing our debt at levels not seen since Lehman Brothers still had a lobby. We carry $124.7 billion in debt on the books. We added $39 billion in 9 months. Our trailing free cash flow is negative $24.74 billion,” the fiction story of the layoff by Girnus said.
